Concept Sketch

Bank Boom was a location oft referred to in the script but rarely seen. The only time the audience ever really saw the bank in the script was when the heroes were in it. Late in production, I approached the director, Tim Richardson, about creating a shot for the opening narration based on the small piggy bank that’s on the map of Muddle-Earth.During a working art meeting, I sat down with my notebook. After one or two iterations, I had the basic visual concept down for Bank Boom within the hour.

Blocking Out the Surfaces

At this stage, I’m working in 3ds Max, creating primitives (such as cylinders and planes) to block out the major features of the surface. Much like you have to put up the frame of the house before you start putting up the walls, major shapes are put into place, and then edited, smoothed, refined, and further moved and tweaked.

The Shell

I’ve got a shell of what will become the bank. All the surfaces are (nearly) connected, though in this shot the legs haven’t been attached, and it’s smoothed out a bit and ready for surface manipulation to turn a bowling pin with legs into a pig.

High-Resolution Surface Modeling

Here I’ve got not only the major surfaces together, but it’s also smoothed, subdivided, and features like the ears and nose have been pulled out. I used one of 3ds Max’s features called “Paint Deformation” to push and pull surfaces using a graphics tablet stylus. This feature is like tugging at or pushing in pixelated clay.

Accessories

I’ve started to model some of the accessories, such as the hat, monocle, and eyes. They’re close to finished products at this point. I’ve also began to toy with and use experimental lighting.

Puffy - Whoa, What Happened?

Yeah, this is the spot where I’m missing some screenshots! I did not take any screen captures while working in Pixologic’s zBrush. This program is quite a different paradigm than any other piece of software out there. It’s not quite a 3d editing program, but it’s not quite a 2d program, either. It’s a bit of both.

I imported the pig object into zBrush, and used it’s amazing, sculpting-like 3d manipulation tools to puff out the flattened ears, pull down some jowls, and basically give the face and body much more character than it had before.At this point, once I had the geometry set, I began working on the surface texture in Photoshop.

Fitting it Onto the Scene

Working simultaneously on the Bank and Mauron’s Tower (seen in the far distance in the perspective view of the screenshot), I began addign environmental objects, such as the road, parking lot, and billboard, to sell this as a large object in a desolate plain, and have it fit in with the background plate provided by the digital matte painter Nate Ferrone.

I created the lighting and objects well enough to sit it in the scene, but for added flair, I turned over the 3d layer to Nate to paint over.He provided me with a differences plate that I could overlay in the final animation render. By hand-painting (using Photoshop) detailed highlights and shadows, he simplified what could have taken weeks extra in lighting setups in 3ds Max.By the way, everyone in Lardor drives white 1996 Ford Escorts.

More Details

This render was taken to get more details in the face and show a closer angle. The background has not been altered, so the framing is a little odd. This was only meant to show some of the detail in texturing, including the text on the billboard, not at all legible in the final product!

Elements

The screenshot here is the background plate with the elements popping in and out. Click on the thumbnail to see the animation.

The Final Shot

Click on the thumbnail to see the final shot hosted by Google Video.

Software used: 3ds Max, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Premier, Adobe After Effects

This shot, for “The Dork of the Rings,” is used when Frudo Buggins puts on the ring, and encounters the security camera of Lord Mauron.

This is the final version found in the movie with music, sounds, and the actor composited in.

Mauron’s Tower model was originally created by art coordinator Ian Strandberg, which I modified, textured, animated, rendered.

Other Lardor Shot

Software used: 3ds Max, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Premier, Adobe After Effects

This shot, for “The Dork of the Rings,” is used when Frudo Buggins puts on the ring, and encounters the security camera of Lord Mauron.

This is the final version found in the movie with music, sounds, and the actor composited in.

Mauron’s Tower model was originally created by art coordinator Ian Strandberg, which I modified, textured, animated, rendered.